Green Cardinal issues an apology to the planet
-26/04/06
Manila’s Roman Catholic Archb
Green Cardinal issues an apology to the planet
-26/04/06
Manila’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales was given a red hat in March 2006 when Pope Benedict XVI made him a cardinal, but for many people the colour of his headgear could equally be green due to his advocacy for the environment ñ writes Maurice Malanes for Ecumenical News International.
“Human acquisitiveness and avarice threaten the supply and availability of resources destined also for future generations,” Rosales said at an Earth Day celebration held at garbage dumpsite that has been turned into a housing resettlement site in Manila. There, he apologised for the people’s “sins” against nature.
Made a cardinal on 24 March, Rosales has been long known for his advocacy against logging and large-scale mining projects, and for support for reforestation and garbage management campaigns.
“To destroy and overuse the earth’s supply today is like stealing from the mouths of your grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Rosales said at the celebration, whose theme was “Mea Culpa, A Call to Repentance and Atonement”. The cardinal said, “They and their needs were also in the mind of God when he created the earth.”
Rosales said lethal disasters that have hit the Philippines in recent years, such as a strong typhoon in 2004 and a mudslide in Leyte, central Philippines in February, were nature’s way of reminding people to check on the way they had abused and exploited the country’s resources. More than a thousand people died after being buried by the landslides in Leyte as an avalanche of mud cascaded down a populated valley.
“God has shown humans, through tragic experience, that nature has a way of fighting back, if only to protect them and their future,” said Rosales. He urged the faithful to do their share for the environment by planting trees and segregating their waste.
The country’s Protestant and Catholic churches have long opposed large-scale industries such as logging and mining, most recently issuing separate statements calling for the repeal of a 1995 law on mining, which offers foreign investors tax breaks among other incentives.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]
Green Cardinal issues an apology to the planet
-26/04/06
Manila’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales was given a red hat in March 2006 when Pope Benedict XVI made him a cardinal, but for many people the colour of his headgear could equally be green due to his advocacy for the environment ñ writes Maurice Malanes for Ecumenical News International.
“Human acquisitiveness and avarice threaten the supply and availability of resources destined also for future generations,” Rosales said at an Earth Day celebration held at garbage dumpsite that has been turned into a housing resettlement site in Manila. There, he apologised for the people’s “sins” against nature.
Made a cardinal on 24 March, Rosales has been long known for his advocacy against logging and large-scale mining projects, and for support for reforestation and garbage management campaigns.
“To destroy and overuse the earth’s supply today is like stealing from the mouths of your grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Rosales said at the celebration, whose theme was “Mea Culpa, A Call to Repentance and Atonement”. The cardinal said, “They and their needs were also in the mind of God when he created the earth.”
Rosales said lethal disasters that have hit the Philippines in recent years, such as a strong typhoon in 2004 and a mudslide in Leyte, central Philippines in February, were nature’s way of reminding people to check on the way they had abused and exploited the country’s resources. More than a thousand people died after being buried by the landslides in Leyte as an avalanche of mud cascaded down a populated valley.
“God has shown humans, through tragic experience, that nature has a way of fighting back, if only to protect them and their future,” said Rosales. He urged the faithful to do their share for the environment by planting trees and segregating their waste.
The country’s Protestant and Catholic churches have long opposed large-scale industries such as logging and mining, most recently issuing separate statements calling for the repeal of a 1995 law on mining, which offers foreign investors tax breaks among other incentives.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]